Owen Smith just tried to ‘out’ a John McDonnell staffer on Twitter and got the wrong guy

Failed Labour leadership candidate MP Owen Smith isn’t having a very good weekend. He jumped in on a Twitter thread to apparently ‘out’ John McDonnell’s communications chief, James Mills. But Smith got the wrong guy and social media users had a field day.

Well, it’s some Labour bloke called James

Twitter user @James4Labour joined in a conversation about Labour’s policy on Brexit and a second referendum. They tweeted:

The serious side

But as other people pointed out there is a serious side to what Smith did:

You actually think this is an appropriate way to raise an issue about someone you have been “told” is a staff member? What if what you have been told is not true ? Or if it is true public shaming of Party staff? Really?

It’s easy to make mistakes and wrongly identify people on Twitter. But no one, let alone an MP, should be publicly trying to expose someone if they’ve chosen to keep their anonymity: especially via hearsay.

Having done so, and then getting the wrong person, the least Smith could do is offer an apology.

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